ders and hazels from the hillside
scrub. But as I marched northward and turned a little point of land I
saw before me in a crook of the bay a smoking cottage. And, plodding
along by the water's edge, was the bent figure of a man, laden with
nets and lobster pots. Also, beached on the shingle was a boat.

I quickened my pace and overtook the fisherman. He was an old man with
a ragged grey beard, and his rig was seaman's boots and a much-darned
blue jersey. He was deaf, and did not hear me when I hailed him. When
he caught sight of me he never stopped, though he very solemnly
returned my good evening. I fell into step with him, and in his silent
company reached the cottage.

He halted before the door and unslung his burdens. The place was a
two-roomed building with a roof of thatch, and the walls all grown over
with a yellow-flowered creeper. When he had straightened his back, he
looked seaward and at the sky, as if to prospect the weather. Then he
turned on me his gentle, absorbed eyes. 'It will haf been a fine day,
sir. Wass you seeking the road to anywhere?'

'I was seeking a night's lodging,' I said. 'I've had a long tramp on
the hills, and I'd be glad of a chance of not going farther.'

'We will haf no accommodation for a gentleman,' he said gravely.

'I can sleep on the floor, if you can give me a blanket and a bite of
supper.'

'Indeed you will not,' and he smiled slowly. 'But I will ask the wife.
Mary, come here!'

An old woman appeared in answer to his call, a woman whose face was so
old that she seemed like his mother. In highland places one sex ages
quicker than the other.

'This gentleman would like to bide the night. I wass telling him that
we had a poor small house, but he says he will not be minding it.'

She looked at me with the timid politeness that you find only in
outland places.

'We can do our best, indeed, sir. The gentleman can have Colin's bed in
the loft, but he will haf to be doing with plain food. Supper is ready
if you will come in now.'

I had a scrub with a piece of yellow soap at an adjacent pool in the
burn and then entered a kitchen blue with peat-reek. We had a meal of
boiled fish, oatcakes and skim-milk cheese, with cups of strong tea to
wash it down. The old folk had the manners of princes. They pressed
food on me, and asked me no questions, till for very decency's sake I
had to put up a story and give some account of myself.

I found they had a son in the Argylls and a